, a policy tilt that has hurt the middle class and moved money uphill, against gravity, defying the laws of gravity, up to the wealthy from the middle class. so it's both political and economic. it's not just a bunch of guys sitting around in a room saying let's screw the middle class. it happened historically, but if we don't understand how and why, we're not going to get to a good fix of our situation right now. >> what's one example of how the middle class, in your view, hats gotten hurt. >> well, take the 401(k) program. it came in in place of lifetime pensions. it shifted hundreds of billions of dollars from the accounting of corporations onto the shoulders of the middle class. take the housing crisis. $6 trillion of accumulated wealth in the mortgages and the equity in american homes was moved during the housing boom. not the bust, the boom. $6 trillion moved from middle class homeowners to wall street banks. those are two, big, enormous changes in wealth that happened during this period. >> when did you start forming the idea to write this book? the power game, correct? >> well, t